A 24-year-old San Mateo man who pleaded no contest to residential burglary for posing as a police officer and taking marijuana, $1,500 in cash and a handgun from the home of a Redwood City man in May was sentenced to nine years in state prison Friday, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.
Judge Stephanie Garratt denied Danny Pita’s defense attorney’s Romero motion, which requests the judge drop one of his client’s previous strike convictions from consideration in sentencing, and sentenced him to a lengthy prison term. He will receive 332 days credit for time served, according to prosecutors.
Pita was on probation for a 2014 armed robbery in which he stole $1,000 from a Kentucky Fried Chicken in Daly City when he is said to have visited the home of a 20-year-old man and told him he was Officer Manu Lofu and that the victim had been the subject of a Redwood City Police Department investigation for the past year, according to prosecutors.
Pita is said to have told the victim his home would be raided later that day and directed him to give him all the marijuana he had and he would keep it for the victim. Pita allegedly told the victim he knew the man’s cousin and wanted to help him out because he’s a good guy, according to prosecutors.
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Believing Pita, the victim allegedly gave him a half pound of marijuana, $1,500 in cash and a 9 mm Beretta handgun he purchased for $1,200 off the street. Four days later, when Pita didn’t return with the items, the victim called police, who reviewed surveillance footage of his home and asked officers to be on the lookout for a man of Pita’s description and a Honda Civic with a cracked windshield, according to prosecutors.
Later that day, Pita was arrested during a traffic stop and found with a loaded ammunition magazine, the stolen handgun under the seat of his car, $1,240 in cash and 13 grams of marijuana. He allegedly told officers he thought the victim was a marijuana dealer and wanted to put him out of business because he was concerned his younger family members may be obtaining drugs through him. He denied telling the victim he was a police officer and said he identified himself as a bounty officer instead, according to prosecutors.
District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe commended Garratt for appropriately using the state’s three strikes law, which increases the prison sentences for those convicted of a felony who have been previously convicted of certain felonies.
“This is why we have three strikes law, for people like him,” he said.
Pita’s defense attorney Garen Nazarian could not be immediately reached for comment.
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